hold the flood/mechanical interfaces and opening quantities.md ..
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The middle column gives named power-only coexistence checks, not exhaustive global maxima or sustained-fire rates. Every new action also needs its own target, natural readiness, heat headroom and physically possible timing; a path may therefore accept fewer overlaps than P alone permits. The outcome column gives achievable ideal-path ceilings, not guaranteed victims. Static bank/terminal lines, Arc hop regions, lance/bloom cover and the presently eligible body count are visible before a manual commit.
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### Temporary stage reward state
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### Temporary combat growth
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This page models stage-only upgrades. The alternative is regular defeated-enemy growth plus larger milestone transformations; its meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour and interruption cost are not defined here.
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Regular fighting supplies temporary growth; major horde milestones supply larger transformations, as selected in the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief). [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns the growth and expedition boundary; exact meters, thresholds, pickups, choice frequency and milestone conditions remain to be designed.
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An eligible stage is one finite, announced pressure release from an identified physical source. It moves from **uncommitted** to **unresolved** when that release's attackers/arrivals commit. A physical closure completed before commitment prevents the release and gives no combat-upgrade offer; safety, access and mechanism-owned completed work remain its benefits. After commitment, it moves to **spent** and offers one temporary choice when the player clears all attackers committed to that release or completes a physical seal that ends their access. The seal stops further access but leaves already-arrived bodies active; quiet requires clearing or separating those bodies. Clearing the current lane while further committed attackers still feed is suppression, not resolution. If the committed finite release is cleared or its access is sealed before the announced peak, it pays immediately; no struggle threshold is required. Break and seal present the same choice even though their combat, oxygen and access costs may differ.
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A finite source release still has a commitment and resolution state. Clearing its committed attackers or sealing their access resolves its pressure; bodies already beyond the seal remain active until cleared or separated. Preventive closure gives safety and access, while any additional reward for avoiding the fight remains open. These pressure states do not gate all ordinary growth.
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Escape leaves the stage unresolved and re-entry resumes it. A spent stage stays spent for the current station arrangement across a living return; reopening the same seal cannot pay again, and physical seal persistence follows its mechanism. A later release is a new eligible stage only when separately authored, announced and sourced. Death itself pays nothing. Every chosen temporary upgrade and any earned-but-unchosen offer expires on return aboard. Carried property and recorded knowledge are handled separately.
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Three to five meaningful choices is a sustained-outing cadence, not a quota: foundation, branch, then refinements or changes, with an optional larger stage able to offer a transformation. A short trip can earn one and cleared travel earns none. The state rule does not guarantee that the next eligible frontier is near after reset.
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Every new expedition renews combat populations and growth opportunities after a living return or revival, while permanent work and source seals keep their owning states. Every temporary upgrade and unchosen offer expires aboard; carried property and recorded knowledge are separate. Loading an ongoing expedition preserves its existing population and growth rather than creating another trip. Existing part quantities and effect budgets below do not select the new growth cadence.
## 3. Opening quantity sheet
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- Whether the opening should begin constrained to the smaller variant (a low-supply backplane that powers one ordinary path until a discovered supply assembly is installed) is an owner quantity choice.
- Whether stored Capacitor charge survives death, living return, storage removal or another expedition boundary.
- Whether a special body survives a developed manual climax; this is combat-strength tuning.
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- The owner's growth-rhythm choice: stage-only upgrades (modelled here) or regular defeated-enemy growth plus larger milestone transformations, whose meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour and interruption cost are not defined here.
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- Exact regular-growth meter, thresholds, pickups, choice frequency and major-milestone conditions; rewards for avoiding fights. The growth direction is selected in the Owner Brief.
- Left with their owning pages: duplicate quantity/stacking, final target override, odd payload sources beyond the stated rule, complete damage/health/strength tables, exact encounter delays and reward cadence, actual route support, every overflow/port/geometry variant, final screens and accessibility equivalents, fabrication versus found parts, survivor air/mortality, population continuity, save policy, completed-station stabilization and all campaign/economy tuning.
- The station joining mechanism, which Discovery in a Changing Station leaves open.
- Whether route/body budgets, bank/fan previews, the manual hold, several target/readiness displays, power/heat, lost shares, storage, fixture recovery and packing choices are comprehensible or enjoyable; whether the horde visibly breaks without effect soup; whether 42–48-body ideal paths are reachable often enough or too dominant; or whether one geometry/build wins too often.
