2026-09-15 11:57:14
Anonymous:
Align regular combat growth and renewed expeditions with owner decisions
hold the flood/build rules.md ..
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Builds are machines the player assembles from reusable parts. Early in an expedition, movement and a modest automatic effect help hold one lane. Earned temporary transformations make the same machine branch, rebound, gather or bloom across a substantial part of an 80–150-body horde, while the player still chooses the line and the moment of a manual climax. A good build has a recognizable fantasy—storm, ricochet factory, moving furnace—not merely a higher damage number.
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The owner has selected connected reusable parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manual special abilities, shared carrying space and a full journal pause (see the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief)). Temporary combat upgrades reset whenever the astronaut returns aboard, alive or revived.
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The owner has selected connected reusable parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manual special abilities, shared carrying space and a full journal pause (see the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief)). Temporary combat upgrades reset whenever the astronaut returns aboard, alive or revived. Each new expedition renews combat populations while permanent changes remain. Temporary power grows regularly through fighting, with larger transformations at major horde milestones.
## Example: choosing what this expedition becomes
Later in the game, the astronaut leaves with a **Storm Choir** rig: Threat Sensor, Pulse Projector, Impact Dynamo, Fork Relay (the splitter), Arc Emitter and Capacitor. Sensor keeps Projector firing at valid targets. Its impacts feed the locally clamped Dynamo, and Fork divides that charge between an Arc discharge and Capacitor storage. This is a later rig built from six physical parts; the exact costs and charge trace are in [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities).
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An identified ward vent announces one finite release into the first occupied hall. Whenever Sensor offers a valid target and Projector is ready, the ordinary shot cycles; its impact supplies the real Dynamo input. The player chooses dense lines and clears that stage's committed arrivals. In the quiet afterwards the rig offers two temporary upgrades based on what is installed:
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An identified ward vent announces one finite release into the first occupied hall. Whenever Sensor offers a valid target and Projector is ready, the ordinary shot cycles; its impact supplies the real Dynamo input. The player chooses dense lines, and fighting supplies regular temporary growth before the release is fully resolved. An earned choice might offer these two changes based on what is installed:
- **Echoing Arc** adds two branch routes to each accepted Arc action. Each route follows the same local hop, cover and body rules and the complete action reserves its heat before commitment. It creates no signal output or usable charge.
- **Rebound Disc** changes Projector's ordinary shot into a physical disc. It follows a committed direction, rebounds only from hard surfaces and reserves operating supply while in flight. It promises repeated contacts when the room has hard walls and useful angles.
This is a choice of play, not “damage plus five percent.” Echoing Arc asks the astronaut to run toward density and preserve cooling headroom. Rebound Disc asks them to read the architecture and bank shots through the crowd. The player chooses Echoing Arc.
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Later ordinary Projector shots fill Capacitor. At the next resolved stage, **Thunderhead** becomes an offered temporary transformation. It gives those same six mounted parts two visible connection modes: automatic charging and a manual burst. With the store full, the player presses the special once. The burst sends stored charge through Fork to three Arc chain heads and one pressure lance, then automatically restores the charging connections. It can break roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies without deleting the rest of a large horde. Ordinary fire resumes only as its parts naturally become ready. The temporary effect supplies the switching behavior; the player does not perform a journal relink during the fight.
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Later ordinary Projector shots fill Capacitor. A later major horde milestone can offer **Thunderhead** as a larger temporary transformation. It gives those same six mounted parts two visible connection modes: automatic charging and a manual burst. With the store full, the player presses the special once. The burst sends stored charge through Fork to three Arc chain heads and one pressure lance, then automatically restores the charging connections. It can break roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies without deleting the rest of a large horde. Ordinary fire resumes only as its parts naturally become ready. The temporary effect supplies the switching behavior; the player does not perform a journal relink during the fight.
A cancelled or refused burst leaves the charge, heat and automatic mode intact. Once the first receiver accepts, it spends the full store and reserves all stated heat, even if a later target is lost or cover intervenes. Burst descendants cannot refill storage through Dynamo. Automatic connections restore without granting readiness; further eligible ordinary shots must charge the next burst. The journal previews both modes, including demand from effects still in flight; [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities) gives the numerical trace and acceptance rules.
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**Retained equipment** is physical. A reusable part carried home remains in the collection. Installed rig parts and inactive carried parts use the same shared carrying capacity as oxygen canisters and loot; active use also occupies rig space. Under the ten-unit carrying comparison, either seven-unit later base plus one two-unit canister leaves one unit for a discovery. A part left in a station machine or dropped in a room is not carried home.
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**Expedition power** is temporary. Resolving meaningful crowd pressure earns upgrades tied to parts already installed. The player gets the survivorslike pleasure of rising from vulnerable to dominant during each outing without losing permanent finds.
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**Expedition power** is temporary. Ordinary fighting supplies regular growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones; these upgrades change parts already installed. The player gets the survivorslike pleasure of rising from vulnerable to dominant during each outing without losing permanent finds.
**Useful knowledge** is remembered. The journal can preserve observed part behaviour, source locations, crowd traits and successful connections. Knowledge does not grant a part or an upgrade, but it makes the next loadout and route more intentional.
@@ 39,7 39,7 @@
The player mounts or removes a physical part in the live world. That action checks carrying and rig space, occupies the astronaut and can be interrupted. Once accessible parts are mounted, the link editor lives in the journal, so link changes happen while the game is paused. Preview shows whether direct ports fit, which modes a temporary transformation will operate automatically, and how much power and heat each possible state demands.
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This makes expression easy to try without pretending that a frozen menu is active combat. Closing the journal returns the player to exactly the danger they paused. The journal is not a recurring active-special interface: Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst perform their gated discharge and restore charging automatically. Offers should stay few and consequential.
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This makes expression easy to try without pretending that a frozen menu is active combat. Closing the journal returns the player to exactly the danger they paused. The journal is not a recurring active-special interface: Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst perform their gated discharge and restore charging automatically. The frequency and presentation of offers should preserve the flow of fighting; both remain to be designed.
## Several ordinary weapons can work together
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## Reward rhythm
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The model below grants temporary upgrades only for resolved stages. The alternative is regular growth from defeated enemies with larger milestone transformations.
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Regular fighting grows temporary combat power, while major horde milestones provide larger transformations. A finite release is still useful for describing pressure, source access and earned quiet; resolving one is no longer the sole trigger for ordinary growth. [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns the common expedition and combat-growth rules.
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An eligible stage is one finite, announced pressure release from an identified physical source. Closing physical access before that release commits prevents it and gives no combat-upgrade offer. It still earns safety and access, and completed work follows its owning persistence rule. Once the stage's arrivals commit, resolving it earns one temporary choice tied to the active rig. The player resolves it either by clearing all attackers committed to that release or by completing a physical seal that ends their access. Killing faster than arrivals suppresses the lane but does not end a release that still has committed attackers feeding through it. A strong build that clears the release before the announced peak, or a prepared player who completes its seal after release commitment but before that peak, earns immediately. Sealing stops further access; already-arrived bodies remain dangerous until cleared or separated. Break and seal offer the same choice; their combat, oxygen and access costs may differ.
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The exact meter, pickups, thresholds, choice frequency and milestone conditions remain open. Preventing a release by sealing its source gives safety and access. Any additional reward for avoiding that fight is still to be designed. Retreat keeps temporary power already earned until the expedition ends; returning home clears temporary upgrades and unchosen offers.
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Crossing the stage's escape boundary saves the astronaut but earns nothing; re-entry resumes the same unresolved stage. A resolved stage pays once for the current station arrangement and remains spent across a living return. Reopening the same seal does not create another reward. A later machinery release qualifies only when it is separate, announced and sourced—not because the player crossed a distance reset. Physical seal persistence follows its mechanism. Death itself pays nothing. An earned but unchosen offer expires aboard with the rest of temporary expedition power. The accepted cost is that surviving an unsuccessful fight gives no temporary help beyond retained property and knowledge, while a reachable seal after commitment may become the safer reward route. Preventive closure trades that temporary choice for safety and access; placement must make the timing and cost readable.
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In a sustained outing, three to five meaningful stage choices could produce a foundation, then a branch, then refinements or changes; an optional larger stage may offer a rarer transformation. A short trip can earn one, while backtracking through cleared or spent areas grants none. Living return preserves those areas. Exactly where the next eligible frontier lies requires route/content support and may leave a baseline or no-upgrade approach; no first choice is guaranteed to be soon.
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Each new expedition renews both opposition and growth opportunities, whether the previous trip ended alive or by revival. Permanent doors, joins, source seals and completed work retain their owning states. Renewed crowds therefore need viable sources and routes through the station as the player has changed it. Leaving and re-entering a room, or loading the same ongoing expedition, does not create another expedition.
Offers should change behaviour: add a branch, create a return, convert a payload, move a payoff or turn stored energy into a manual climax. Small statistical improvements can support tuning later, but they should not be the defining choice. An offer fails when one answer is mandatory for every crowd shape, when its effect is hard to see, or when the player cannot explain why the machine changed.
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This rhythm gives the encounter and reward systems a clean handoff. Combat provides pressure and a release; the release provides a brief paused choice; the changed machine makes the next crowd desirable. The cost is that a familiar cleared route becomes safer but cannot rebuild peak power. The next climb comes from an occupied frontier, changed death-shift geography or a larger event the player chooses to wake—not from a death reward or instant reset of the world.
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The intended rhythm lets the player grow while pressure is building, use that new behavior against the next denser crowd, and reach a larger transformation at a major horde milestone. Too many choice interruptions can spoil movement; too little growth can leave the exciting build arriving after the fight. Placement and later validation must establish the cadence rather than infer it from a fixed number of resolved stages.
## Three ordered transformations, not recipes
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**Gravity Furnace — 8 carrying / 8 mounted spaces.** Automatic pressure shots plus outward stride pulses → Inward Draft's rear pull → Furnace Burst's full-store lance and bloom. The player runs a wake into a chosen line, then fires or escapes. Hard cover divides the effect and ranged attackers keep firing. Bellback's pressure wave can scatter the wake; a clear Inward Draft displacement can also interrupt its brace as a Nozzle response. Holding for a larger knot brings danger closer, and a blocked bloom may feel much smaller than the gathered crowd.
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These are ordered behavioural ladders, not XP thresholds. They work under either growth alternative: resolved-stage choices, or regular defeated-enemy growth with larger milestones. They use only existing reusable parts and temporary effects. The player may hybridize them, stop early or use the same parts for defence or station machinery. The meaningful question is what the machine does in this expedition and what it costs, not whether the player completed a set.
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These are ordered behavioural ladders, not XP thresholds. They illustrate regular combat growth leading to larger milestone transformations; exact award conditions remain open. They use only existing reusable parts and temporary effects. The player may hybridize them, stop early or use the same parts for defence or station machinery. The meaningful question is what the machine does in this expedition and what it costs, not whether the player completed a set.
## Property
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## Open questions
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- The owner has not chosen between the resolved-stage reward model above and regular growth from defeated enemies with larger milestone transformations; the latter's meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour and interruption cost are not designed here.
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- The growth meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour, choice interruption cost and major milestone conditions.
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- Rewards for avoiding a fight or sealing a source before release.
- Whether players experiment freely with links in the journal or feel obliged to pause after every change in the room.
- Whether stored Capacitor charge survives death; this follows the existing persistence decision and is not answered here.
