The player carries one finite rig. Its spaces hold active equipment parts; ordinary salvage and inactive parts occupy the same overall carrying capacity. An installed part occupies space once, not once as cargo and again as equipment. The exact grid, shapes and capacity are open. A suit tank supplies limited portable oxygen; carrying additional canisters in general capacity is a proposal, not an owner requirement.
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The player carries one finite rig. Its spaces hold active equipment parts; ordinary salvage and inactive parts occupy the same overall carrying capacity. A part installed in the rig occupies capacity once, not once as cargo and again as equipment. Moving it to inactive cargo frees active rig area but not carrying capacity. The exact grid, shapes and capacity are open. A suit tank supplies limited portable oxygen; carrying additional canisters in general capacity is a proposal, not an owner requirement.
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Parts expose a small public grammar rather than hidden recipes:
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Parts use a public grammar rather than hidden recipes: a **trigger** notices an event; a **payload** carries charge, heat, force or fragments; a **modifier** transforms, stores or branches; an **actuator** produces a projectile, arc, barrier or shove. A packet contains a trigger and may carry a payload. Impact Dynamo, for example, emits a trigger carrying charge; Capacitor stores it and later emits a charged trigger, while Thermal Lens changes charge into heat without inventing another trigger.
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- A **trigger** notices an event such as manual activation, impact or stored heat becoming ready.
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- A **payload** carries a known state such as charge, heat, force or fragments.
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- A **modifier** transforms, stores or branches a signal or payload.
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- An **actuator** produces the world effect: projectile, arc, barrier or shove.
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The player arranges parts in the active area and draws only compatible directed links between visible ports. A part may fill more than one role, so acquiring it can reopen several old arrangements. Inspection states each part’s verified individual behavior and compatible port types. The interface previews the next local link and flags an invalid connection; it does not calculate the final build or announce an undiscovered multi-part outcome.
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The player arranges parts and draws compatible directed links between visible ports. Multi-role parts reopen old arrangements. Rig-installed and inactive carried parts each consume capacity once; installation also consumes active area and enables use. Field swaps consume world time.
At the ship, rearrangement is safe. In the station, installing, removing or rewiring a part is a deliberate world action while oxygen and threats continue. The journal still pauses the rest of the game as the owner requires, but consulting a recorded diagram cannot complete a rig edit.
## Resolution and readable limits
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Each activation creates a causal wave that travels along directed links. Within that wave, a part resolves at most once; a returning signal stops instead of looping forever. Several impacts created by one actuator may fill one visible accumulator, but cannot repeatedly retrigger the same path during that wave. Stored charge or heat can carry between waves, with its state and saturation visible. This permits buildup and explosive release without an invisible infinite loop. Exact capacities, rates and damage are deliberately unspecified.
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Manual activation, a new enemy attack or an ambient hazard is an **external event** and starts a causal wave. Rig-created projectiles, fragments, arcs, barriers and contacts keep that wave identity rather than becoming new external events.
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Within a wave, each part resolves once and a returning signal stops. Force projectiles, pressure bursts, fragments and external strikes against the player or Barrier Plate are impacts; arcs and heat are not unless explicitly converted. Impact Dynamo batches several same-wave impacts into one visible accumulator contribution and emits one downstream packet. Stored states persist across waves with saturation visible; exact capacities and damage remain open.
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A later external event begins another wave. Enemy attacks can repeatedly feed Counterwall until attacks stop, the barrier fails or storage saturates. That is an intended horde-fed engine, not recursive self-activation or a balance claim.
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An incompatible link is visibly invalid before commitment. A saturating part holds, vents or passes overflow by its stated rule. Surprise should remain traceable, not depend on hidden exceptions.
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## Navigation, inspection and discovered families
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The suit always shows oxygen, carried reserve/capacity, condition and controls. Its minimum return reference is a reverse breadcrumb through passages actually traversed to the last confirmed anchor, ultimately the ship. It promises neither safety nor continued access, exposes no unseen route and predicts no exact return cost. Unknown routes have local orientation only. A recorded location keeps captured evidence and its anchor-relative breadcrumb; a learned crew name labels the record without granting tracking.
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A carried or accessible part shows individual behavior, controls and ports. Preview answers only whether the proposed direct link between accessible endpoints is valid; it does not calculate every combination. An unfamiliar fixture shows visible traits, ports and its original cut mark. Once learned, **relay** predicts packet transfer, **sink** absorption and **isolator** interruption. Human-painted copies remain contextual. Controls work without this discovery, and not every build requires it.
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If a connection cannot accept a payload, nothing is silently discarded: the link is visibly invalid before commitment. If a valid part saturates, it holds, vents or passes overflow according to its stated rule. Surprising power should come from consequences the player can trace, not exceptions hidden in item descriptions.
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At an exposed isolator contact, the player may bypass it and seat a carried relay-family part—such as Fork Relay—in readable service ports. Knowing relays transfer packets tells the player what to pack; local preview only confirms the proposed link on arrival. The part stays seated to keep the section and hoist powered. It is lost to the rig but, once left behind, no longer occupies carrying capacity. This adopts Exploration Structure's persistence choice.
## Illustrative parts
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## Three materially different paths
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**Cascade lance.** Pulse Projector → Impact Dynamo → Fork Relay. One branch feeds Arc Emitter; the other stores charge in the Capacitor. The immediate branch clears dense ordinary hordes while repeated activations prepare a later discharge. Thermal Lens can turn the stored release into a heated projectile rather than another arc. Sparse separated targets interrupt the chain, but the build is allowed to overwhelm a packed horde when its conditions are met.
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**Cascade lance.** A manual Pulse Projector shot starts a wave; its impact lets Dynamo send a charged trigger through Fork. One branch activates Arc Emitter, the other stores charge. Capacitor release sends charge through Thermal Lens, whose heat payload Projector launches. Sparse targets reduce Arc branching and later impact opportunities, not the basic sequence. Packed hordes may be overwhelmed.
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**Counterwall reactor.** Barrier Plate turns defence into the primary trigger surface. Horde impacts against the barrier feed Impact Dynamo, then Capacitor. The player chooses whether to spend accumulated charge refreshing a defensive output or send it to Arc Emitter. This is the surprising combination: the wall is not only protection but a readable engine powered by holding a dangerous line. It fails when attacks bypass its facing or arrive too slowly to justify the committed parts; no artificial damage penalty is added.
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**Counterwall reactor.** A manual trigger raises Barrier Plate. Each later enemy strike starts a wave through Dynamo into Capacitor. Stored charge can trigger Barrier or Arc Emitter. The wall becomes protection and engine while a horde attacks; it stops when strikes stop, bypass its facing or break the barrier.
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**Salvage storm.** Salvage Cycler supplies portable payloads. Conductive scrap feeds Arc Emitter; a pressure vessel goes through Pulse Projector as a broad force shot; brittle material creates fragments. Impact Dynamo and Fork Relay let a material effect charge a second output and the Capacitor, but the once-per-wave rule stops a fragment burst from multiplying itself without limit. This path spends colony-bound salvage for present survival. Hoarding starves it; careless firing destroys return value. Enemy manipulation may help cluster a wave, but the experiment is composing equipment and materials, not controlling enemies.
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**Salvage storm.** Cycler emits a trigger carrying a material response: conductive scrap activates Arc, pressure passes through Projector as force, brittle material fragments. Their impacts let Dynamo make one batched charge packet, split by Fork between Arc and Capacitor. Those fragments cannot start fresh waves. The path spends colony-bound salvage; hoarding starves it and firing destroys return value. Equipment/material composition, not enemy control, is the experiment.
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All three reuse parts while asking different questions: sustain a chain, convert defence into power, or consume cargo for adaptable effects. A newly found Fork, Lens or Capacitor changes more than one path because its ports describe possibilities rather than membership in an archetype.
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All three reuse parts while asking whether to sustain a chain, power defence or consume cargo. A found Fork, Lens or Capacitor changes several paths because ports describe possibilities, not archetype membership.
## Acquisition, commitment and return
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Found equipment is readable at the individual level before installation. The player may install it in the field, carry it as inactive cargo, leave it, or discard another object. Installation can unlock immediate power but commits active area, carrying space and world time. Salvage returned to the ship supports the colony or later work only as those separate systems eventually define; this article assigns no currency or automatic upgrade value.
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Found equipment is readable individually. The player may install it, carry it inactive, leave it or discard something else. Installation grants immediate use but commits active area, carrying capacity and field-edit time. Returned salvage has no currency or automatic upgrade value defined here.
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Hordes test whether a build creates space, sustains output and protects an oxygen-limited return. They also create opportunities for dense-target chains and barrier impacts. A build that erases ordinary hordes after deliberate acquisition and composition can be a successful payoff, not automatically a balance failure. Real limits come from its causal shape, carried cost, acquisition conditions and situations it does not address.
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Hordes test space creation, sustained output and the oxygen-limited return while feeding dense-target chains and barrier impacts. A deliberately assembled build may erase ordinary hordes as payoff. Its real limits are causal shape, carried cost, acquisition and situations it does not address.
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The return decision remains legible: keep the installed rig and sacrifice newly found salvage, dismantle a part to carry a discovery, spend salvage through the Cycler, or turn back before oxygen margin becomes unsafe. If spare canisters later use separate capacity, the equipment-versus-salvage decision still holds, but its link to oxygen weakens.
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On return, keep the rig and forgo salvage, dismantle a part for a discovery, spend salvage through Cycler, or turn back. Separate spare-canister capacity would preserve equipment-versus-salvage while weakening its oxygen link.
## Minimum useful expedition after a cached loadout
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- navigation and the owner-required pausing journal;
- a low-output emergency projector/cutter for basic defence and common interactions.
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These baseline functions do not expose build ports and cannot join a cascade. They let the player scout, record, evade, take an alternate objective or search for replacement parts; they do not guarantee that a guarded cache is recoverable. Additional canisters, active build parts and valuable tools still occupy whatever capacities their later systems assign. This is an equipment-system dependency, not settled starting gear, a replacement economy or an explanation of revival.
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These baseline functions do not expose build ports and cannot join a cascade. The ship services one suit baseline after revival; it never becomes detachable, saleable cargo or another cached copy. It lets the player scout, record, follow the traversed-route breadcrumb, evade, take another objective or search for parts, but does not guarantee cache recovery. Additional canisters, build parts and tools still occupy whatever capacities later systems assign. This is an equipment-system dependency, not settled starting gear, a replacement economy or an explanation of revival.
## Credible alternative: multi-tag synergies
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Instead of directed links, each part could carry semantic tags such as heat, impact, branching and barrier. Compatible pairs or sets would activate authored effects automatically; arrangement would mostly manage carrying space. This is easier to explain, bounds interaction testing and prevents causal loops. Multi-tag parts can still create choices.
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Instead of directed links, each part could carry semantic tags such as heat, impact, branching and barrier. Compatible pairs or sets would activate authored effects automatically; arrangement would mostly manage carrying space. This is easier to explain and bounds the authored interaction list. Multi-tag parts can support cross-combinations, and their authored rules would still need to exclude or contain any feedback loops.
Its cost is prescription. Once combinations are listed, a found part tends to complete an intended set rather than transform several existing machines. The connected grammar is preferred because the player authors the causal path and can understand why a ridiculous outcome occurred. That preference accepts higher interface, authoring and consistency burdens.
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## Counterexample and consistency check
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- **Infinite feedback:** a signal returning to a resolved part stops; persistent accumulators receive at most one contribution per source wave.
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- **Infinite feedback:** descended effects retain their source wave; a returning path stops. Multiple qualifying impacts become one batched accumulator contribution. New enemy attacks may sustain new waves, but rig output alone cannot mint them.
- **One obvious upgrade:** Capacitor, Fork and Lens each have offensive, defensive and storage placements with different carried costs; no path is declared numerically superior.
- **Cycler consumes the entire tradeoff:** it cannot consume the protected objective accidentally, and spending ordinary salvage loses return value. Other paths remain effective without cargo fuel.
- **All gear cached:** the suit baseline permits a useful expedition but not automatic cache recovery. The player can defer, abandon or seek new equipment elsewhere.
