2026-09-07 18:54:35
Anonymous:
Clarify discovery recording, glyph reliability and head carrying
hold the flood/build comparison.md ..
@@ 10,7 10,7 @@
- The objective is a **compressor head** from station canister-filling gear. It occupies meaningful capacity, is useless if cracked, and must reach the ship. Installing it is proposed to extend reach per canister slot; magnitude and uniqueness remain open.
- Equipment, ordinary salvage, and spare oxygen canisters share one visible carry-capacity interface. Active oxygen and estimated time remaining are always readable; no exact quantities are asserted.
-
- The head begins secured in a powered rack whose state is readable. After releasing it, the player can deliberately stow or drop it. Carrying it reduces flexibility rather than applying a hidden penalty. Ordinary hordes remain active during the return, while powered doors and route junctions create readable pressure.
+
- The head begins in a readable powered rack. **In hand**, it travels immediately but prevents full use of a two-handed or multi-part build; only basic defensive actions remain. **Stowed** on the carry frame, it still occupies its full capacity but frees the player to use the build after a deliberate, exposed transfer. **Dropped**, it frees that capacity and restores full handling immediately, but the fragile head stays behind, exposed to damage and abandonment. These states are visible, not hidden penalties. Ordinary hordes remain active during the return.
The Design Lead’s expedition should match these carrying, extraction, and hazard properties or identify a replacement before review.
@@ 32,9 32,9 @@
## Reusable discovery
-
Near the target, alien service glyphs group components into **relay**, **sink**, and **isolator** families. Former crew copied them onto equipment without fully translating them, changing the meaning of labels already seen without solving the language. Oxygen, capacity and known effects remain explicit. Understanding adds a persistent notebook entry and exposes the markings elsewhere. Once learned, responses are reliable; mistaken labels are not part of these acquisition rules.
+
Near the target, alien service glyphs group components into **relay**, **sink**, and **isolator** families. Every mark was already physically visible. A proposed notebook can preserve a facsimile and location when the player chooses to record one, but it neither names a family nor highlights matches; the player supplies the inference by comparing forms. Nothing is translated or newly revealed by an unlock.
-
The Array player can now recognize a relay worth installing or an isolator that breaks the chain. The Cycler player can predict whether marked salvage transfers, absorbs, or interrupts an effect before carrying or spending it. This changes later choices across rooms and revisits without answering the language or central mysteries.
+
Original functional marks are machine-etched or stamped and consistent: once the player learns the pattern, they reliably predict whether a component transfers, absorbs, or interrupts an effect. Former crew also hand-painted visibly irregular copies as human labels. Those copies provide crew context, not mechanical identification; neither kind is deceptive. The Array player can recognize an original relay worth installing or an isolator that breaks the chain. The Cycler player can predict a marked input before carrying or spending it. This changes later choices across rooms without answering the language or central mysteries.
