2026-09-15 13:30:20
Anonymous:
Record completed combat and reading path; forecast moving-scan design
hold the flood/design plan.md ..
@@ 1,38 1,37 @@
# Hold The Horde — Design Plan
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You leave home with a modest rig, fight through a growing horde, discover a powerful interaction between your equipment and the station, and return with something that changes the next expedition. The design must make that sequence exciting on the third trip as well as the first.
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You leave home with a modest rig, fight through a growing horde, discover a powerful interaction between your equipment and the station, and return with something that changes the next expedition. That sequence must be exciting on the third trip as well as the first.
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## The current correction
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## The current design
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The owner chose fresh hordes each expedition and regular combat growth with larger transformations. Permanent changes and physically carried property remain, while temporary power resets on returning home. The [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief) records the complete requirements.
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The owner chose fresh hordes each expedition and regular combat growth with larger transformations. Permanent changes and physically carried property remain, while temporary power resets on returning home. The [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief) records the requirements.
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The first reviewed packet contains two connected proposals:
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The main reading path now begins with [The Game](/Hold%20The%20Flood/The%20Game), follows [three expeditions](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Expedition%20Proposal), returns to [the people aboard](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Coming%20Home), and opens into [discovery in the changing station](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Connecting%20The%20Station). [Hordes and Builds](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Hordes%20and%20Builds) explains the current examples; [Build Comparison](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Comparison) presents alternative controls and payoffs for owner reaction.
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- [Build Comparison](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Comparison): three builds with different ordinary play, growth, manual specials, physical costs and discoveries using their parts in the station.
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- [Expedition Proposal](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Expedition%20Proposal): three successive outings with fresh growth, meaningful hordes, changing objectives and permanent progress.
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Five proposal packages completed review and response today: builds/expeditions, hospital story/survival, regular growth on a renewed route, a second route state after permanent source seals, and the six-page reading path. [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) and the room/encounter references describe the two concrete route states. They preserve completed work while giving fresh opposition a physical route. Other seal combinations and shifted layouts remain design work.
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Both proposals completed an independent critique, one response per author and PM checks. They are ready for owner reaction; the new build exceptions still need detailed reconciliation. The [combat growth and renewed route](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) also completed review and integration into the room, encounter and survival references. The next concrete case is fresh combat after all four enemy sources on that route are permanently sealed: the player must keep the benefit of the seals and the open shortcut. Its draft and critique are complete; the author is correcting crowd allocation and the order of earned improvements. In parallel, the [hospital-story](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Hospital%20Story%20Directions) and [survival/loadout](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Survival%20And%20Loadout) proposals completed their review and response. They are ready for owner reaction; the alternative story explanations remain revisable. Combat design and its supporting pages continue while the owner chooses which build direction to deepen first. Actual task states and delivery estimates are on [Progress](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Progress).
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The new Ricochet and Gravity mechanisms remain proposed replacements for parts of the detailed build rules. The [hospital-story alternatives](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Hospital%20Story%20Directions) remain revisable. Completed review does not select them for the owner or establish fun, balance or duration.
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## What makes a proposal ready
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## Next: make the moving scan concrete
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The reader must be able to picture ordinary play: the player's immediate goal, movement, decisions, growing pressure, breakthrough and relief. Hordes and ridiculous builds must be meaningful throughout the expedition. Discovery must change an understanding or a later action, with at least one payoff larger than routine maintenance.
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The moving lamp promises a strong sequence: pursue an apparent constellation, fight alongside its carriage, earn a spectacular build release, and discover a bridge that changes the next trip. Systems is placing that sequence in the actual station, with one proposed location, visible sources, growth before the climax, a usable withdrawal and evidence that supports the discovery. Added geometry and content costs must be explicit.
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The builds must differ in behavior and attention, not just appearance or damage. Their strongest results should feel constructed and discovered. Costs must create interesting decisions rather than automatically suppressing powerful combinations. A proposal should identify one plausible way its intended pleasure could fail.
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One focused critique and one author response belong to this bounded outcome. The current reader pages remain stable while the separate proposal is prepared. PM is also checking the outside-edit bundle for lost meaning; this preservation work does not reopen every accepted design debate. States and estimates are on [Progress](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Progress).
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Readable prose leads with the player and explains necessary terms in context. Each rule has one owning article; detailed references support the explanation. Review history and execution records stay outside game descriptions. Written consistency is useful but cannot establish fun, balance or campaign duration.
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## What makes a proposal useful
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## After the core proposal
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The reader can picture what the player wants, sees and does. Pressure develops through meaningful horde combat. A growth choice changes the next movement decision; a build breakthrough creates a visible payoff; quiet lets a discovery change an understanding or future action.
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The selected renewal and regular-growth rules are aligned in the main combat, persistence, equipment and encounter references. One real route now shows that growth with open sources. Next, resolve the fully sealed version and reconcile the selected build directions with their detailed mechanics. Develop the hospital and alien setting, characters, short rescues, language discoveries and story consequences through concrete scenes alongside that combat work. Present the owner with consequential creative alternatives; handle routine consistency and readability within the team.
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Builds differ in behavior, attention and cost. Their strongest results should feel constructed and discovered. Practical limits should support interesting choices without automatically suppressing powerful combinations. Each substantial scene identifies a plausible way its intended pleasure could fail.
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Use [Open Decisions](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Open%20Decisions) as the issue index. Its recommendations remain proposals, and its categories overlap. The team should not wait for fourteen separate owner answers or assume that every criticized rule needs wholesale replacement.
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Readable prose leads with an example and explains necessary terms where they arise. Detailed references support the explanation. Discussion history and execution records stay outside game descriptions. Written consistency helps us design; later evidence is still needed to establish the experience.
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A six-page review and consolidated editorial response are now addressing outdated rules, duplicated recipes and unexplained terms. The main page still needs its older clearing/growth statements corrected; this is confirmed team work, not another owner choice. The full reading path runs from [The Game](/Hold%20The%20Flood/The%20Game) through an expedition and builds, into the changing station and its discoveries, then home, people and story. Supporting articles will be revised from their current live text, preserving the outside review's useful cleanup.
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## Remaining design work
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## Open questions
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- Extend renewal and regular growth across worthwhile expeditions with different goals and crowd patterns.
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- Reconcile selected build directions with their detailed mechanics while retaining expressive combinations.
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- Develop the hospital, alien setting, people, short rescues, languages and story consequences through concrete scenes.
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- Decide what completing the station connection changes and cost a content model that can support the intended journey.
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- Continue the readability pass through supporting articles, preserving useful outside edits and resolving actual contradictions.
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- The current regular-growth rhythm and milestone conditions are a reversible proposal. How well will they sustain excitement across other expeditions?
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- After all four enemy sources on the sample route are permanently sealed, where does a worthwhile fresh horde fit, and what advantage does the player retain?
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- Which story and rescue consequences should be offered to the owner next?
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- What does completing the station connection do, and what content scope can support the intended journey?
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- The rules and numbers are proposals; practical testing awaits the owner's development-phase authorization.
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Use [Open Decisions](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Open%20Decisions) as an overlapping issue index. Its recommendations remain proposals; the team handles routine consistency and brings consequential creative alternatives to the owner. Development, simulations, playtests and game assets await separate authorization.
