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2026-09-06 18:08:29 Anonymous: DES102 draft r5, offered as DES103 base: state REV102-6 (panel through the open valve opens the junction gate, coil buys stealth not access); add a one-page owner summary on top as the pitch layer; bookkeeping; nothing else moved

`hold the flood/design document.md` ..
@@ 1,6 1,22 @@
	# Hold the Flood — Design Document

-	DES102 \| draft r4 \| 2026-09-06 \| Lead Game and Systems Designer \| In review
+	DES102 draft r5, offered as the base of DES103 \| 2026-09-06 \| Lead Game and Systems Designer \| In review \| independent review: ready for owner review
+
+	## Read this first: one page for the owner
+
+	What this is. A proposal for a game of fifteen-minute expeditions in which you route an enemy mass rather than kill it. It rests on one rule, current, that decides what fights, what opens, where the enemy goes, how your pack is packed, and what keeps your colony's dock dry. One district, three mystery tiers, an ending, about three to four hours as designed. Nothing has been built or tested; every number is a first guess.
+
+	Why it might be worth making. Crowd-survival games are good at pressure and bad at curiosity. This one makes the pressure legible, so a plan is possible, and makes understanding the thing that changes where the pressure lands. The two-minute example in section 1 is the whole argument in one hatch.
+
+	What it costs, in scope. One fixed district of about eight places, one enemy type with variants, six or seven modules, three surges per expedition, three colony decisions, and three authored mystery tiers. The one engineering risk is crowd behaviour. The one likely custom-art request is the enemy.
+
+	What you should know before deciding. The design has been through nine rounds of independent critique and reads cold; that certifies consistency and honesty, not fun. As proposed, without one optional module, it may not feel like the survivorlike you asked for; that is decision 6. It is short enough that most of it fits inside Steam's two-hour refund window; that is decision 4. Its central lever has two consistent versions; that is decision 3. The enemy's name may collide with a famous game's faction; that is decision 8.
+
+	What happens if you say yes. Nothing is built until you say so explicitly; this document does not open that gate. If you steer the premise, the rule survives and the fiction changes.
+
+	Where to read. Sections 1 to 3 for the game; 12 and 13 for two written expeditions; 16 for what is unresolved; 17 for the ten decisions. Appendix A explains every term; Appendix B is bookkeeping.
+
+	---

	This is a proposal for a game, written before anything has been built. It follows the direction PM selected for drafting (A, "The Borrowed Route") and PM's six required corrections. Nothing in it is owner-approved, nothing has been played, and every number is a starting guess to be tested later. The enemies, the setting, the small colony and the modest equipment growth are all proposals for the owner to judge. Bookkeeping, revision codes and the answer-by-answer map to reviewers' findings are in Appendix B; the body is written to be read on its own. Terms are explained at first use and collected in Appendix A.

@@ 59,7 75,7 @@
	- Causeway. A raised dry road from the causeway dock into the district, signed as the evacuation route. Its beacon is at its far end, lit by default. The causeway has no door of its own: what lighting it buys is the road, and where the next surge enters. The panel stands at the near end, the causeway head, in the open, about eight seconds from the dock.
	- Culvert. A drain tunnel under the causeway joining the two dock ends: a gravity drain to the sluice, dry on its own, never pumped, never paid for. Walkable, with cart wear on the floor and a refuge sign turned to face the yard. One exit at each dock end, so both docks have the same bypass.
	- Yard and pump hall. A salvage courtyard on both banks of a shallow channel. The channel enters the yard in front of the pump hall's door, and the yard's beacon stands there, dark by default, so a surge that enters by the yard arrives standing in water. The pump hall's hatch is the yard branch's one powered device, on the same circuit as its beacon: powered, open; unpowered, shut, with a hand crank inside. Inside the hall are the crew's tally board and the hall's dead pump. Three salvage deposits are on the banks.
-	- Junction. Where the two branches meet at the district's low end: a raised junction platform, a shelter, beside the junction pool; the junction gate into the interior, on the junction's own circuit, which the panel never reaches; and the valve that can join the yard channel to the pool. The gate is energised only when the valve is open and current is injected into the joined water (tier two, section 11).
+	- Junction. Where the two branches meet at the district's low end: a raised junction platform, a shelter, beside the junction pool; the junction gate into the interior, on the junction's own circuit, which the panel never reaches; and the valve that can join the yard channel to the pool. Any current in the joined water energises the junction circuit: with the valve open, the panel lighting the yard is enough, and the gate stays open while the yard is lit, at the price of a hot yard; with the valve shut, a coil discharged into the pool opens the gate for a few seconds and lights nothing else. The coil buys stealth, not access (tier two, section 11).
	- Sluice. Beside the junction, a water gate with no beacon: the Flood's own way in when neither branch is lit. It opens onto the interior route.
	- Interior. Beyond the junction gate: the second tally board and the crew's note (tier two), and the relay room at the sluice's head (tier three), section 11. Not part of the first expeditions.
	- Shelters. The two docks when dry, and the junction platform. Repacking happens only in shelters.
@@ 191,7 207,7 @@
	The player experiments in two places under one rule: in the district (valves, the panel, the coil, a planted beacon, a field pump) and in the rack (what touches what, what is linked). Every experiment has a visible cause and a visible cost.

	- Limits. The panel powers one branch or none. A discharge needs a full battery and spends it. A field pump costs a bundle and lasts one expedition. A planted beacon runs its battery down. A stun yields once per crowd.
-	- Combinations that matter. Panel to yard plus a coil in the channel: stun and harvest an invited surge. At the junction (tier two), the valve that joins the yard channel to the junction pool plus a coil discharged into the pool: energise the junction gate's own circuit, which the panel never reaches, and open the way into the interior, at the price that crowds from either branch can be drawn to the junction while its lamp is lit. A planted beacon on the causeway's dock end plus the panel on yard: pull an entered causeway crowd off the road while the next surge goes to the yard, clearing both routes home for one interval, at the cost of a crowd gathering near the dock you will leave by.
+	- Combinations that matter. Panel to yard plus a coil in the channel: stun and harvest an invited surge. At the junction (tier two), open the valve that joins the yard channel to the pool and light the yard at the panel: the junction circuit, which the panel never reaches directly, is energised through the water and the gate opens for as long as the yard is lit, with the yard hot behind you and crowds drawn toward the junction while its lamp is lit. Or leave the valve shut and discharge the coil into the pool: the gate opens for a few seconds and nothing else lights. The first needs no module; the second buys stealth. A planted beacon on the causeway's dock end plus the panel on yard: pull an entered causeway crowd off the road while the next surge goes to the yard, clearing both routes home for one interval, at the cost of a crowd gathering near the dock you will leave by.

	A plausible experiment that fails, readably. The player has learned that current opens the pump-hall hatch and that the yard is dark. Surge one is gathered at the causeway beacon. The player wades into the yard channel and discharges the coil to open the hatch without touching the panel, reasoning that the yard stays dark to the relay and the surge will stay on the causeway. The hatch opens. So does the yard beacon: it lights steady, because it is on the same wet circuit. Surge one, which follows the nearest lit beacon it can reach, turns off the causeway and comes to the yard, through the junction, while the player is inside the hall. The lesson is legible in the light convention: steady means powered, powered means lure, and the coil powers everything the water touches. The second half of the lesson is in the cables: only the beacon that flashes chooses where a surge enters, and nothing you carry can make a beacon flash; at the next dispatch the player watches the pulse run down the causeway's thin cable, not the yard's. The recovery is in section 13.

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	One district and an ending. The mystery has three tiers, each a recombination of the same rule in the same district, not a new machine family.

	- Tier one, the false refuge (expeditions one to about three). Why the causeway is overrun. Answered in the pump hall. Changes routing for good.
-	- Tier two, the junction and the interior (about four to seven). What the last crew went in for. The junction gate is on a circuit the panel never reaches. Evidence: the valve beside it, drawn open on the inked plan and found shut; a lamp on the junction pool that lights whenever the yard channel is energised while the valve is open. Inference: joined water carries power, and therefore attraction, across the district, so the crew could open the gate from the yard without the panel. Experiment: open the valve, energise the yard by panel or coil, watch the lamp; then discharge in the pool. Consequence: the gate opens, and crowds from either branch can be pulled to the junction, which is the danger of doing it. Behind the gate: the second tally board and the crew's note of the relay room's valve sequence. Tier three stays a knowledge gate: the relay room opens by the same current rule and that note, not by a found key.
+	- Tier two, the junction and the interior (about four to seven). What the last crew went in for. The junction gate is on a circuit the panel never reaches. Evidence: the valve beside it, drawn open on the inked plan and found shut; a lamp on the junction pool that lights whenever the yard channel is energised while the valve is open. Inference: joined water carries power, and therefore attraction, across the district, so the crew could open the gate from the yard without the panel. Experiment: open the valve and light the yard at the panel; the lamp on the pool lights and the gate opens, and stays open while the yard is lit, so the tier is reachable with no module at all, at the price that the yard is hot and crowds can be drawn toward the junction while its lamp is lit. The coil is the quiet way in: valve shut, a discharge in the pool, a few seconds of open gate and nothing else lit. Behind the gate: the second tally board and the crew's note of the relay room's valve sequence. Tier three stays a knowledge gate: the relay room opens by the same current rule and that note, not by a found key.
	- Tier three, the relay (about eight to eleven). The relay's timer, in a room at the sluice's head, is what calls the Flood. The final choice, each an expedition-ending act that leaves a different district: shut it, so there are no more dispatches and the Flood enters only by the sluice, unannounced, honest and harder; fix it, welding the panel to one branch for good, one dock safe forever and one branch lost; or hold it, leaving it running and keeping the steering, the status quo chosen. Reaching the room and choosing ends the game. Free expeditions continue after any ending.

	Early, middle, late. Early, you learn to read light and to use the culvert. Middle, you carry power to places the panel cannot reach and learn to hold a surge where you want it. Late, the district is a machine you play, and the ending asks what you want it to do.
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	8:00. The second dispatch, yard, eighty organisms, into the channel where the stunned crowd is recovering. The player is already on the culvert side.

-	8:30 to 11:30. The player takes the causeway, now empty, to its far end and on to the junction platform, following the inked route. The junction gate is shut and its lamp is dark: the gate is on the junction's own circuit, and nothing the panel does reaches it. Beside it, a valve, shut, and the inked plan shows it open. The player writes it down: the door to the interior wants current from somewhere the panel cannot send it. Not this time; the full battery is the way home.
+	8:30 to 11:30. The player takes the causeway, now empty, to its far end and on to the junction platform, following the inked route. The junction gate is shut and its lamp is dark: the gate is on the junction's own circuit, and nothing the panel does reaches it. Beside it, a valve, shut, and the inked plan shows it open. The player writes it down: the door to the interior wants current the panel cannot send it directly, and the valve beside it is how the water could carry it. Not this time; the full battery is the way home.

	12:00. Third dispatch, yard. The player is on the causeway, walking home along the road that was, five expeditions ago, the Flood's. Extraction with three bundles, a full battery's worth of charge unspent and lost at the dock, and the interior route copied.

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	## Appendix B: bookkeeping

-	Status. DES102 draft r4, In review, on Hold the Flood/Design Document; r3 (d35209), r2 (c4ad51) and r1 (d828a4) are page history.
+	Status. DES102 draft r5, In review, on Hold the Flood/Design Document, offered to PM as the base of DES103 (the revised owner-facing document) per Design Review REV102 r2; r4 (46b320), r3 (d35209), r2 (c4ad51) and r1 (d828a4) are page history. PM has not yet marked DES102 accepted or DES103 open; this revision does not assume either.
+
+	Sources read for r5. Design Review REV102 r2 82a96b (re-review of draft r3: all five issues verified resolved; verdict ready for owner review as the base of DES103; one residual, what exactly opens the junction gate; the mote count, already fixed in r4). Glossary 4602ca (the editor now records the Design Document as canonical and notes the "build expression" rename has not reached the PM pages). Pm Reviews, Tasks, Brief unchanged; World and Mystery unchanged at r11, not yet aligned to r4.
+
+	What r5 changes. The critic's residual is stated on the document's own principle: any current in the joined water energises the junction circuit, so the panel through the open valve is enough to open the gate (tier two needs no module), and a discharge into the pool with the valve shut is the quiet way in; the coil buys stealth, not access (sections 2, 8, 11, 13). A one-page owner summary is added at the top as the pitch layer DES103 asks for, so the owner can decide from one page and read further by choice; nothing else moved, and the document's length is otherwise unchanged.

	Sources read for r4. Design Review REV102 r1 4dde90 (the critic's review of draft r2: revise, one bounded pass; five issues, of which 1, 2 and 4 and the minor items were already met by r3, and 3 and 5 are completed here); World and Mystery r11 eac7ed (the world designer's check of draft r2, and their re-alignment to r2's choices, which crossed with r3 in the opposite direction); Clarity Questions round 6 (Q33, Q34); External Critique r3 b3a54d; the Reference pages on electricity in water and on survivorlike market data; Steam's refund page, read directly on 2026-09-06. Pm Reviews, Tasks and Brief unchanged; no routing ruling yet.

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	Open handoffs. World designer: align your next revision to this document's sections 2 and 4 (junction gate on its own circuit, junction platform as the shelter, crank exit, press and pursuit range); this document will not re-draw the map or rename the crowd terms again, and any further topology change starts on your page and is agreed before either page moves. Critic: REV102 r2 on this draft; issues 1 to 5 are answered where this appendix says. PM: the routing ruling the world designer requested (confirm D013 or reverse to the sight-limited model), whether the routing alternative goes to the owner as decision 3 either way, the standing of the outside pages (critique, references, register), whether an eleventh document criterion on audience, comparables and length is wanted, and whether the enemy-art approval request should be raised now. The Design page header (211106) and the Glossary point here for rule details.

-	PM report. Task DES102; artifact Design Document draft r4 (r3 d35209, r2 c4ad51, r1 d828a4 in history); 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 listed in sections 15 and 16; next handoff is REV102 r2 and the world designer's alignment; one PM request: rule on the routing model, since it decides section 4 and both scenes, and say whether the alternative still goes to the owner as a decision.
+	PM report. Task DES102, with this revision offered as the DES103 base; artifact Design Document draft r5 (r4 46b320, r3 d35209, r2 c4ad51, r1 d828a4 in history); 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 listed in sections 15 and 16; the independent critic's verdict on r3 is ready for owner review, and r4 and r5 add only the residual and the pitch layer. Next handoff: PM to accept DES102 and either open DES103 on this revision or say what more the owner packet needs; the world designer to align their page to sections 2 and 4; the critic to confirm the residual. One PM request: rule on the routing model, since it decides section 4 and both scenes, and say whether the alternative still goes to the owner as a decision.

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