2026-09-10 17:27:19
Anonymous:
Remove review history and align superseded prose with current design rules
hold the flood/horde encounters.md ..
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# Hold The Horde — Horde Encounters
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**Status.** A working encounter proposal after focused review; its frequency and quality remain unvalidated. It shows two ordinary encounters in one proposed area and argues which kind should be common. Example fiction is labelled. Rules for controls, perception, reinforcement and interruption belong to [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules); this article applies them to the player experience. No enemy roster, campaign map or balance figure is proposed, and nothing here establishes that any of it is enjoyable.
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**Status.** A working encounter proposal; its frequency and quality remain unvalidated. It shows two ordinary encounters in one proposed area and argues which kind should be common. Example fiction is labelled. Rules for controls, perception, reinforcement and interruption belong to [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules); this article applies them to the player experience. The sketches do not specify a campaign placement or balance values. [Build Comparison](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Comparison) explains the two loadout approaches used below; [Hordes and Builds](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Hordes%20and%20Builds) shows the current detailed build examples.
## The area
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**Decisions.** Push the middle, where the crowd is densest and a cascade has most to work with. Move along the thin wall, trading damage for exposure and timing. Or back out and take a branch route, which costs oxygen and time and is a legitimate answer, not a failure. With ordinary fire mostly automatic, these are positioning and timing choices: the run is crossed by deciding where to be and when to spend a special, not by landing individual shots.
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**With the Relay Cascade Array.** Ordinary fire is mostly automatic and special abilities are triggered by hand (owner requirement), so the player's decisions here are where to stand, which way to press, and when to spend a special — not whether each shot connects. Density is the Array's best case: moving into the packed middle puts its automatic output where the chain has most to branch through, and the run empties. That is simply a win: the run's crowd is gone for this expedition, and the player has bought the direct route and the oxygen they would have spent going around. No replacement wave arrives and no compensating elite appears. A build that trivialises an ordinary crowd is the point of having built it.
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**With the Relay Cascade Array.** Ordinary fire is mostly automatic and special abilities are triggered by hand (owner requirement), so the player's decisions here are where to stand, which way to press, and when to spend a special — not whether each shot connects. Density is the Array's best case: moving into the packed middle puts its automatic output where the chain has most to branch through, and the run empties. That is simply a win: the run's crowd stays defeated in the current station arrangement, and the player has bought the direct route and the oxygen they would have spent going around. No replacement wave arrives and no compensating elite appears. A build that trivialises an ordinary crowd is the point of having built it.
What it does not buy is a quiet door. The run up to the door vestibule is this encounter's boundary; clearing it does not defeat the caller beyond, or consume groups in connected spaces. Nor does "clear" mean sealed: something living outside can later walk in along a real route, cued by sight, sound or door movement along that connected route. It does not spawn as a penalty for clearing the crowd.
@@ 26,9 26,11 @@
**Why fight rather than pass.** The intended payoff is seeing an assembled rig clear the crowd and win direct access. The alcove is also visible to someone who slips past; noticing it does not require a fight. Enemy behaviour is legitimate information; it is not a reward for combat, and manipulating it is not the experiment.
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**Temporary growth.** Under the current stage-only proposal in [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules), clearing an announced release's committed attackers or sealing their access earns one upgrade choice. Preventing the release before commitment buys safety and access without an upgrade; escape leaves it unresolved. These sketches do not specify the sources and stage boundaries needed to assign rewards. Regular growth from defeated enemies with larger milestone transformations remains the unselected alternative. All temporary upgrades end on any return aboard.
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**Withdrawal.** The player can attempt to reach the junction past occupants and pursuers. Enemies continue pursuing while they perceive the astronaut, then search and settle after losing the cue. Withdrawal spends time and oxygen and may defer the objective.
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**On return.** A later expedition may change population and density. Deliberate persistent changes and recorded evidence follow the exploration rules; the earlier clearance is not a guarantee for a new expedition.
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**On return.** A living return preserves the arrangement and defeated creatures; surviving creatures can still move in along visible routes. A resolved stage stays spent. Death shifts unconnected areas and resets transient crowds, while selected permanent changes and recorded evidence remain. Every return ends temporary combat upgrades.
## Encounter two — the jammed door
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**What the player sees before committing.** The door's state and its remaining bolts are readable at a glance, as are the two approaches to the panel and which one has cover. So is the reason this will be harder than it looks: cutting and cycling are loud, and the run's occupants investigate loud things.
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**The pressure is caused, not scheduled.** Nothing escalates because the player is doing something interesting. The door grinds, and grinding is a physical event ordinary enemies come to look at. This example also holds one caller — an ordinary enemy that, allowed to finish its warning, brings a group from the adjacent space. Before committing to the first bolt the player can see or hear it, recognise its warning behaviour, and see the connected entrance it would summon from. Dealing with it first is a real priority decision with a readable consequence. Ordinary fire takes the nearest valid target, so reaching the caller with it means positioning until nothing else qualifies first — which may mean clearing what stands between. The alternative is spending a manual special to stop the warning in time. That is the choice: rearrange yourself, or spend something. The run in encounter one has no such source.
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**The pressure is caused, not scheduled.** Nothing escalates because the player is doing something interesting. The door grinds, and grinding is a physical event ordinary enemies come to look at. This example also holds one caller — an ordinary enemy that, allowed to finish its warning, brings a group from the adjacent space. Before committing to the first bolt the player can see or hear it, recognise its warning behaviour, and see the connected entrance it would summon from. Dealing with it first is a real priority decision with a readable consequence. The proposed ordinary-fire default takes the nearest visible valid target, so reaching the caller with it means positioning until nothing else qualifies first — which may mean clearing what stands between. The alternative is spending a manual special to stop the warning in time. That is the choice: rearrange yourself, or spend something. No additional Caller or alarm release is specified for the run in encounter one.
**Decisions, and what they cost.** Resolve the caller/source, present enemies and travelling groups before working, committing the relevant equipment or inputs up front. A separately cued later arrival can still change the situation. Work in bursts between arrivals, using a Cycler shove to displace what arrives and buy stages — displacement, not a barrier. Or take what has been done and leave.
The middle option has a price that lasts: taking hits spends condition, with no passive field recovery in this proposal. Field healing is not specified here. It narrows the margin before a damage death for the rest of that expedition, including the walk home. So working under fire is not free just because damage cannot cancel a stage — it borrows against every later margin on the trip.
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**Interruption, stated exactly.** The work has named visible stages — each bolt, then each cycle of the door. Leaving before the current stage completes loses that stage and the time and oxygen already spent on it. Completed stages are checkpoints and do not roll back. Damage alone does not cancel the work; an enemy stops it only by a readable physical result, such as forcing the astronaut off the control. So withdrawal has a real opportunity cost without permanent loss: the trip that ends here bought fewer stages than it hoped, and the bolts already cut stay cut.
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**Interruption, stated exactly.** The work has named visible stages — each bolt, then each cycle of the door. Leaving before the current stage completes loses that stage and the time and oxygen already spent on it. Completed stages are checkpoints and do not roll back. Damage alone does not cancel the work; an enemy stops it only by a readable physical result, such as forcing the astronaut off the control or occupying it. So withdrawal has a real opportunity cost without permanent loss: the trip that ends here bought fewer stages than it hoped, and the bolts already cut stay cut.
Backing out is a route decision, not a guarantee. The way to the junction can be held by something, and choosing to leave is not the same as being able to.
@@ 50,9 52,9 @@
**With the Cycler.** A shove can temporarily displace the approach’s occupants, spending salvage to buy a work window. It creates no lasting barrier or established cost advantage; its value depends on the situation and available inputs.
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**Room to think, stated precisely.** The journal pauses enemies, oxygen and action progress, so *reading* stored records and the already-visible frozen view is free. Capturing is not: framing and committing a record of the painted mark on this door frame is a world-time action, and physically studying it spends oxygen while the run's occupants keep moving. Looking raises no attention by itself, but it is not outside time. Thinking over what is already held is protected; getting new evidence into the journal is priced.
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**Room to think, stated precisely.** The journal pauses enemies, oxygen and action progress, so *reading* stored records and the already-visible frozen view is free. Capturing is not: framing and committing a record of the painted mark on this door frame is a world-time action, and physically studying it spends oxygen while the run's occupants keep moving. Looking raises no attention by itself, but it is not outside time. Thinking over what is already held is protected; getting new evidence into the journal is priced. Compatible links between accessible mounted rig parts can also be changed in the paused journal under [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules); physically fitting or removing a part still takes running time.
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**On return.** Cut bolts and completed cycles are deliberate physical changes and persist across expeditions; the population around them does not. What can still block progress is a genuine new change — a new visible obstruction or an engaged powered brake. That prevents the *next* stage without rolling back a completed one, and must be an authored change the player can read, never a quiet reset of earned work.
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**On return.** Cut bolts and completed cycles persist across expeditions. A living return preserves defeated creatures and spent releases; death resets transient crowds as the station shifts. What can still block progress is a genuine new change — a new visible obstruction or an engaged powered brake. That prevents the *next* stage without rolling back a completed one, and must be an authored change the player can read, never a quiet reset of earned work.
## Comparison
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| Main decision | Where to go and what to spend | Whether to clear first, work between arrivals, or stop |
| Reason to fight | Build expression; clear direct access | Quiet working time for stages |
| Cost of leaving | Time and oxygen | Time, oxygen and the unfinished stage |
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| On return | Different population | Persistent work, different population |
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| On return | Living return keeps cleared ground; death resets transient crowds | Completed work persists; living return keeps cleared ground and spent releases |
## Which should be common
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## Unresolved
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Why the alcove is avoided, and whether such anomalies stay interesting once explained; whether route crowds without escalation sources remain tense; and the enemy roster, not proposed here. Ordinary target selection, optional aim assistance and equipment exceptions remain to be designed within the owner's firing decision, and [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns that contract along with condition and its recovery, on which the door decision above depends.
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Why the alcove is avoided, and whether such anomalies stay interesting once explained; whether route crowds without additional escalation remain tense; and the sources, stage boundaries and placement for these sketches. [Combat And Enemy Roster](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20And%20Enemy%20Roster) owns the creature proposals. Target overrides, optional aim assistance and equipment exceptions remain open within the current nearest-visible default; [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns that contract along with condition and its recovery, on which the door decision above depends.
